ON THIS DAY: Two from our region killed in 7/7 attacks

Published:11:20Updated:12:07Thursday 07 July 2016

It was the terrorist attack Britain had feared.

On the morning of July 7, 2005, suicide bombers inflicted the most unimaginable carnage and destruction by detonating devices on packed underground tube trains and on a busy London bus, murdering 52 people in total.

This included 37-year-old Adrian Johnson from Sutton and 52-year-old Michael Brewster from Swanwick.

The extremists detonated the bombs during rush hour, and in quick succession.

Then first was on the line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, the second on a service at Edgeware Road which had just left the platform and the third was on a train between King’s Cross and Russell Square.

All detonated within a matter of 50 seconds and initial reports suggested there had been power surges on the underground, before the full horror became apparent.

Then, an hour later, a fourth device was triggered on the top deck of a bus on Tavistock Square. It was so ferocious it blew the vehicle’s roof off.

For the love ones of those who regularly commuted through London, it became an agonising wait as they struggled to make contact because mobile phone networks were shut down, along with all public transport.

But for two sets of families and friends in the region, their worst fears would eventually be realised.

Adrian Johnson, a married father-of-two who worked for fashion label, Burberry, had been on the fateful tube train heading for Russell Square.

It was the deadliest out of all the blasts, killing 26 in total.

Meanwhile Michael Brewster, a 52-year-old senior project manager at Derbyshire County Council and also a father-of-two, had been on the Edgware Road train and was one of six who died.

His family spent a week putting up posters around London in a vain effort to find him, before police confirmed his death.

While the world looked to blame extremists from the Middle East, it emerged that all four bombers were British, three of them from Leeds and one from Buckinghamshire.

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